sand-stone*, which may be (at a rough estimation) about an hundred
feet above the level of the sea. This high land is divided
into three distinct heads, or capes, and is described by Captain
Lautier as having the appearance (from the sea) of threef hills
in the form of as many islands. The low ground at the back
and to the south-east of these capes is thickly covered with date-
trees, but their summits are now bare of wood and destitute of
any vegetation : the sand-stone in fact is fast crumbling away, and
the height of the promontory is every day diminishing. The
appearance of this triple cape coincided so well, in our estimation, with
the description given by Strabo of the Cephalas Promon tori um that
we have not hesitated to pronounce it the same with that headland.
I t does not however form the precise point, or western extremity, of
the gulf, which is in fact a low rocky projection, scarcely above the
level of the sea, about four miles distant from the cape: but this point
is too low to be remarked from the sea, and Strabo, when he observed
the cape from his vessel, may well be excused for having overlooked
it.
The Tgngm axgo», or Triaerorum Promontorium of Ptolemy is no
* Dr. Della Celia has confounded the sand-hills with the promontory, the latter of
w h i c h he asserts is composed entirely of sand; they are however as distinct from each
other as sand-stone may be said to be from sand. The sand-hills are, besides, at some
distance from the sea, and the promontory immediately upon it.
■f II Capo Mesurata, a tre circa leghe di distanza, si mostra sotto 1 apparenza di tre
monticelli a foggia di tre isolotti.—See Lautier’s Memoir, attached to the Viaggio da
Tripoli, 8fC., by Della Celia.
+ xxea mteXe Kai vXattns, ttgxpi tns ¡¿erydkms Si/glfiiUr, jeaXstn 5e KepoXau* Lib. 17, § 18*
doubt the same with the Cephalas of Strabo ; and being laid down a
little without the gulf corresponds more exactly with the actual nature
of the ground. Strabo certainly describes his promontory as
forming the beginning or western extremity of the Syrtis ; but the
circumstance above mentioned of his having seen it only from the sea,
may be easily imagined to have occasioned this little inaccuracy, if
such it may indeed be termed.
We are at a loss to imagine what the promontory can be which
Signor Della Celia has identified with that of Ptolemy (and which
he states to have been two hours distant from Mesurata) unless the
Cephalas itself be intended, or, in other words, the cape which we have
supposed to be the Cephalas *. For, with the exception of this, there
is no other high land which will in any respect answer to the triple
cape of Ptolemy ; and this is not more than half an hour’s ride from
the town, and is not in the route which the army must have taken
in marching from Mesurata towards the Syrtis, as will be seen by a
reference to the Chart. At the same time, we can neither persuade
ourselves that Strabo would have instanced an accidental range of
sand-hills as a promontory; nor that the word verify, applied by this
geographer to the Cephalas, can he supposed to mean distant, or
deep, instead of high, as Signor Della Celia has imagined; notwithstanding
the passage cited from Homer, which the Doctor reads in
favour of his argument f.
* Dopo due ore di cammino giungemmo all* estremità del Promontorio che sporge
in tre punte divise da seni di mare : ond’ è che il nome di capo Triero con cui è chiamato
da Tolommeo ne esprime la forma.—Viaggio da Tripoli, 8^c., p. 60.
(* The observations connected with the transposition of the comma ' recommended by
Signor Della Cella, are at the same time,' wé must confess, rather singular : for it does